Monday is Writing Group Day…

I sometimes don’t always look forward to Mondays…but for the next ten weeks, Monday is one of my favorite days.

Why?

Monday is Writing Group day at the VA.

As terrible as this sounds, come hell or high water, I was going to participate in facilitating that group (you may remember I had some trouble with a little thing called an ID badge that all volunteers are required to have).

Last week was our first group. In all honesty, it felt like the first day of school for me. I was nervous, I worried about some of the prompts (second guessing myself big time), I wasn’t sure how many Veterans would sign up. Would they be talkative, would they be quiet, would they even want to write…

And then I pulled into the parking lot and all of those fears seemed to go away. I felt excited and prepared (sort of like the first day of teaching). I walked into the room and there sat several Veterans with journals (provided) and laptops. I was extremely happy to see that some chose to go “old school,” with their journals and pens…but also impressed that some participants brought their laptops (as they had participated in the fall group) and wanted to save their writing in folders and make notes as they responded to prompts.

I was the only civilian in the room. I admitted that when I introduced myself to the group. The only connections I had to them was the fact I could write (a little), and I knew about Veterans because I was married to one, and I spent most of my graduate career researching trauma in literature and working with student veterans.

They welcomed me.

Our first prompt was about how you might recognize a Veteran. Can you pick a Veteran out in a store? At church? When you are at the VA for an appointment? What does a Veteran look like? Are there markers/signs?  Do you recognize a Veteran because they have tattoos? A hat with their war campaign on it? In addition to the prompt about Veterans, there’s always a non-military prompt to write about as well. The second prompt asked the participants of the group to write about what a person with a mental health diagnosis look like? Can you pick out someone with PTSD? What about someone with bipolar disorder? How do we try to identify others?

Something to think about, am I right?

The responses were similar and different. I was impressed…a prompt that might have been challenging turned out to be a major conversation starter. Some of the Veterans had to pause to share what they had, and others said they were going to finish their writing at home (boy, did that make my heart swell). Some of the answers made my heart hurt…”I wish people wouldn’t tell me to get over it because I’m home now and my war is over.” We may never know when a Veteran’s war is over, but we must try to give the Veteran room and time to process and heal.

Today is our second meeting. I have those same feelings again–excitement, nervousness, anxiousness, but I know once I walk in that room I will be just fine because I am going to be surrounded by some pretty amazing writers.

These are some of my writing things! The blue journal looking book is a traveler’s notebook filled with smaller notebooks that I use for a variety of things…and I always have this with me just in case I need to jot something down, or an idea comes to me for a post…old school, if you will. The bigger yellowish-mustard colored “book” is my planner. All the things are in the planner–dates, lesson plans, grades, notes, I love this planner! The small yellow “bag” with a pineapple is a pencil pouch that has some school related things in it–flash drives, pens, pencils, highlighters. My goodness, school supplies and writing supplies are awesome! 🙂